Minnesota Officer Acquitted in Killing of Philando Castile~NY Times article~

ST. PAUL — The images had transfixed people around the world: A woman live-streaming the aftermath of a police shooting of her boyfriend, Philando Castile, and narrating the searing, bloody scene that was unfolding around her.

On Friday, a jury here acquitted the Minnesota police officer, Jeronimo Yanez, of all charges in shooting, which happened in July 2016 and left Mr. Castile dead, raising the national debate over police conduct toward black people. Officer Yanez, an officer for the suburb of St. Anthony, had been charged with second-degree manslaughter and endangering safety by discharging a firearm in the shooting.

The verdict was announced in a tense courtroom here late Friday afternoon, after five days of deliberations, and the officer was led quickly out of the courtroom, as were the 12 jurors. Mr. Castile’s family, which had nervously watched the proceedings from the front row, abruptly left as well.

“My son loved this city, and this city killed my son,” Mr. Castile’s mother, Valerie, said as she stood on a corner outside the courthouse afterward. “And a murderer gets away. Are you kidding me right now?”

In Killing by Police, a Jury Sees What the Dash Camera Saw JUNE 5, 2017

In Court, Diamond Reynolds Recounts Moments Before a Police Shooting JUNE 6, 2017

In the days since the Minnesota police officer who shot and killed Philando Castile was acquitted of manslaughter, the outcry on both social media and in the streets of the Twin Cities has been loud and angry.

But it is the silence about the Castile case that might be the most deafening.

That liberals and advocacy groups like Black Lives Matter are furious about the verdict is not surprising. Philando Castile is yet another black man shot down by a police officer after years of law enforcement harassment. Before his tragic and needless death, Castile had previously been pulled over by the police an astounding 49 times.

It’s hard to think of a more telling story about the racially-biased interactions between black Americans and law enforcement than a black man being pulled over 49 times by police and, on the 50th time, being shot down for doing nothing wrong . . . and then the officer who killed him being found not guilty of murder.

But why aren’t conservatives up in arms? Why aren’t gun owners full of indignation over a licensed gun owner being shot and killed by a police officer, with no accountability and no punishment?

"What the fuck! What the fuck! What the fuck!”. We were four black teens in a shitty station wagon looking for a place to play basketball until we realized we were lost. All I can hear is my best friend in the backseat yelling over and over again, “What the fuck! What the fuck! What the fuck!” and the cop outside of the station wagon with his gun pointed directly at me yelling, “Don’t fucking move, roll the window down, don’t fucking move!"

We pulled up next to a parked cop car to ask him for directions. When we realized there was no one in the car, we reversed to leave, but before my friend could put the vehicle in drive, a cop jumps out of a van next to the police car with his gun pointed right at me. To this day I still feel a little guilty about the relief I felt when the cop made his way from my side to the driver side of the car and pointed the gun inches away from my friends head instead of mine.

My friend's eyes were closed, and his hands were straight up. I could see the gun inches from his temple. My friend rambled, "we're lost, we're lost, directions, directions, we just wanted directions." My friend in the back seat was still yelling. I just stared at the gun waiting for my life to change forever.

Eventually, everything was sorted out, but the whole ordeal messed me up. We were good kids who never got in any trouble. All we wanted to do was ask for directions. I couldn’t understand why the cop felt so threatened by us. I remember asking myself, If we were four white teens would he have acted the same way? I don’t know, but the fact that I have to ask that question at such an age should tell you something.

I despise race baiting. Race baiting cheapens and undermines every legitimate cry of racial injustice and breeds a sense of apathy in people who would otherwise be sympathetic to such cries but feel the discussion of race is a zero-sum game they can never win.

However, there is also a problem with some people in this country dismissing racism wholesale when it isn't overt racial slurs or crosses burning on front lawns. Covert racism is a real thing and is very dangerous. Covert racism works the same way anti-gunners use coded language to push gun control. They say common sense gun measures, but we know what they really mean. We gun advocates spend our time trying to prove to the people that they don't just want background checks they want to ban guns. The problem is, they don't come right out and say,"give me all your guns" so no one believes us, but we know the effects are incredibly real. That's what covert racism is and does.

In The case of officer Jeronimo Yanez, I don’t feel he woke up that day wanting to shoot a black person. However, I keep asking myself, would he have done the same thing if Philando were white? As I put on my Monday morning quarterback Jersey, it is my opinion that Philando Castile should be alive today. I believe there was a better way to handle the initial stop. If he suspected Philando was a suspect in a robbery, there were ways to conduct that stop in a way that would have completely avoided the shooting altogether, but Yanez neglected to do so.

Beyond that point, things get a little fuzzy for me. Other than Yanez's testimony, there is nothing I read about the trial or any newly revealed facts to suggest that Philando was going for his gun. However, I don’t know what Yanez saw that made him think Philando was going for the gun, I wasn’t there, and I only have his words to go by. Sadly, Philando isn't here to tell us other than his last dying statement of, “I wasn’t reaching for it”.

Personally, I feel because Yanez pulled Philando over underThe suspicion that he was a robbery suspect coupled with the presence of a gun, it put Yanez in a heightened state. I feel he lost control of his wits and overreacted. This now brings me to the question of race. Do I think Yanez felt threatened by the fact that Philando was black? It's very possible Yanez was indifferent about Philando's race. However, because of the negative stereotype reinforced in the media about black men and guns, it wouldn't completely surprise me if Yanez felt more threatened by Philando because he was black. This is the same negative stereotype that I've been trying to combat for years now.

Legally, I'm left asking myself, was Yanez failing to conduct a proper felony stop reckless or negligent enough to warrant a Second Degree Manslaughter conviction? As a lawyer, I'm hard pressed to think so. But the young black male in me says hell yes. Admittedly, I don’t have all the facts the jury had; I didn’t hear the testimony the jury heard. Maybe after hearing his testimony they believe Yanez honestly felt his life was in danger and justifiably so. However, I have to be honest and say, he shouldn’t be able to just walk away freely without legal consequence I just don't know what that consequence should be.

I so badly wanted to keep race out of this. There are so many professional race baiters who thrive on and become rich from increasing the racial divide in this country. Because of this racial opportunism, it makes it hard to call out the more insidious elements of racism in this country vs. the isolated incidences where race doesn't play a factor. Then again, considering other examples where "race" was legitimately a factor In previous shootings, I think it would be irresponsible not to consider race as a possible motive in this shooting.

All that being said, Philando Should be alive today. In my eyes, Yanez screwed up big time. I don’t feel he was out to take a black life that day, but it doesn’t matter because his actions cost Phliando his life. My legal mind can see why they couldn’t get to Manslaughter in the Second Degree based solely on the facts at hand, but Yanez walking away from this case a free and clear man is just wrong. "

ok cool. he talked about the situation for the first minute or so and then went on a rant about the media. so, my question is: exactly what position does colion noir hold on the NRA board? him speaking as a spokesperson of the NRA because he is a NRA member, activist and BLACK!! is like me speaking for every person in the state of Michigan... naw, im not buying any wolf tickets on this one all of it, smells way too pundity... by design!

Colion is a lawyer that works for the NRA, and is an official spokesperson that does a show on their internet TV channel. Not sure what they are supposed to do more. Things like this happen shockingly often, to people of all stripes. I just think people unfairly demonize the organization because they don't like guns...

i think it's unfair to demonize ALL people who want "sensible gun control" as some kind of nuts who want to abolish ALL guns. (sorry, but i guess i am one of those UNICORNS out there who does believe people CAN HAVE GUNS as well as HAVE SOLID CONTROL MEASURES IN PLACE) his comparison of the covert language used with racism to that of those who want to take away guns is not only a completely false equivalent that borders on the mythological, but is absolutely disgusting to me, and i'm not even black, so i would think it might be seen as even more disgusting to someone who IS black.

that said, though he might be a spokesperson, he's still not really cutting it. we kind of need to see some of the, uh, how do i put this..."Good Ol' Boys" taking the stage and saying something, doncha think? read the tweetstorm mentioned in the article Ink posted, where the woman streamed about 15 or so cases of how the NRA was silent when in similar situation involving black gun owners. meanwhile they JUMP whenever a white person is involved. every. damn. time. without fail! there IS a double standard going on. makes me sad to hear it still denied...

today in my small little town, a very depressed black man with the complete and sole intention of committing "suicide by cop" walked up to a police officer in our downtown area, pulled out a toy pellet gun, and pointed it at the officer. thankfully, the officer (who, yes, was white) had enough common sense and instinct to draw and fire his weapon in the man's leg and NOT give him anything near a fatal wound. he saved the man's life and likely our town from erupting into riots once it was discovered the man was not actually carrying a real weapon.

Through its media outlet NRATV, the nation’s leading gun group promotes racist hosts and spreads fear that movements like Black Lives Matter present a physical threat to white people. NRATV personalities portray people of color generally and African Americans in particular as dangerous individuals who can’t stop killing each other and who will make this violence spill over into white neighborhoods.

After the New York Times reported that “some 30 people are victims of gun homicides” every day in America, future NRATV host Grant Stinchfield said that we should “blame minorities killing each other not law abiding conservatives.”

When a Boston Globe piece argued that more guns will likely lead in more people of color being killed, the NRA’s sole African American host, Colion Noir, likened the piece to a “negro pity party.” (Noir’s given name is Collins Idehen. His chosen last name, “Noir,” is the French word for black.)

“Blacks commit murder at 11 times the rate of whites alone,” NRATV host Bill Whittle claimed on his show.

Two days after Donald Drumpf took the oath of office, Chuck Holton, who co-hosts an NRATV show with disgraced Iran Contra figure Oliver North, celebrated by suggesting that having a black man in the White House defiled the nation.

The notion that violent, armed criminals will come for you and your family if you are not armed is a longstanding theme of the NRA’s rhetoric. Witness, for example, a 2013 NRA ad claiming that “law-abiding average people” need high-capacity magazines to defend against “the madmen, drug cartels and home-invading killers.” Or an NRATV interview last May featuring, of all people, the male model Fabio — who claimed that California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) will soon release a wave of “pedophiles, child molester [sic] and rapists” upon the people of his state.

Now, in the age of Drumpf, the NRA’s propaganda often casts Black Lives Matter in the role of the dangerous external threat that must be resisted with armed force.

In a July video, for example, Stinchfield and Holton claim that “white families are being tortured and killed almost every day in racist violence” in South Africa and argue that the same thing could happen here in the United States. They warn of “the parallels between what’s happening in South Africa and the blatant racism and violence we’re seeing from people like the Black Lives Matter crowd.”

South Africa, a nation where white supremacist rule was displaced not too long ago, is “kind of a warning for what could happen in the United States,” they continue, if America is taken in by “this racial hatred that is being forced on the American culture by the Black Lives Matter crowd.”

According to the NRA, anti-Trump mass movements are directed by dangerous black men pulling puppet strings behind the scenes.

Last April, Dana Loesch cut a recruitment video for the NRA that featured her speaking over dramatic music, violent imagery, and footage of political protests. Media, schools, “movie stars and singers and award shows” and an unnamed “ex-president” are all joined in a effort to “make them march, make them protest, make them scream racism and sexism and xenophobia and homophobia and smash windows, burn cars, shut down interstates and airports, bully and terrorize the law abiding,” according to Loesch’s NRA video.

“The only way we stop this,” she concludes, “the only way we save our country and our freedom is to fight this violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth.”

Loesch’s “clenched fist of truth” video walks right up to the line of calling for explicit violence against liberals without ever actually crossing it. Stinchfield and Holton assert that Black Lives Matter is bringing America on a path toward a South African dystopia, but never quite connect the dots to explain how....

The theme that emerges here: The NRA does not so much make racist arguments as it creates an overall racist atmosphere.

NRATV materials dance just one inch inside the fence of plausible deniability. They seek to leave you enraged that scary black men are directing the anti-Trump resistance — and they bolster that rage with violent images and the NRA’s core focus on guns — yet they also leave you unable to explain what, exactly, you are angry at. It’s the kind of propaganda that skips the brain and goes for the gut.

Yet while it is often difficult to make logical sense of the NRA’s arguments, it is easy to process them emotionally. Donald Drumpf is good. Democrats are bad. Gun control is bad. Black Lives Matter is bad. NRA members are in danger. And only guns can save them.